


Fantasm

by Luspiel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Lance misses home, No Bashing please, No Beta, No pairings - Freeform, OCs - Freeform, Sorry Not Sorry, We Die Like Men, artistic liberties have been taken, not graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22075960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luspiel/pseuds/Luspiel
Summary: A young boy steps foot onto the Castle of Lions. He is the secret weapon the Galra have been creating. One person's dream is another's waking nightmare....Somewhere post season 2
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Lance (Voltron) & Original Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. Good Morning

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a bunch of different works including one specific one (that I forgot the name of sorry) and Soltaz by Anna Sai over on Fanfiction.net. With that said carry on.

They were on a simple recon mission. Get in and get out. But Lance couldn't ignore the prisoners lying in those dimly lit cells. His mind raced back to the hallway lined with cells full of miserable people and stopped on the escape pods the Galras usually kept in their hangars.

"I'm picking up radio chatter from neighboring planets. Apparently this monster called the "Nightmare" is aboard the ship. Be on high alert paladins," Coran said on the coms. The Nightmare? Lance was sure now more than ever that he couldn't leave these prisoners to be subjected to this monster. He was the red paladin of Voltron, and his job was to save people.

"Guys, how hard do you think it would be to rescue the prisoners on this ship assuming that they would travel in escape pods?" Lance asked over the coms. It wasn't long until he heard Pidge's voice who was currently in the room right behind him. "It's a standard Galran ship with mostly sentries as guards and a few flesh and blood officers commanding it, however they don't seem to be serving any tactical purpose. I'd say it would be relatively easy to fly them over to the next planet. Judging by the rooms we passed by on the way to the control room I'd say this is a testing facility, luckily for us it reports straight to the head."

"Lance, what are you planning? We can't afford to take any risks with the lions being so newly shuffled around. This is a simple mission," Keith said irritably. "Well, we have the means, the time, and the resources, Keith. I'm going to get the prisoners on this ship off. If I don't do something, then they'll become test guinea pigs for the Galra!" Lance said already starting his descent down the corridor. Keith wrestled with the idea of saving innocent people or sticking with the plan for a few moments, but finally decided that someone had to bail Lance out when his recklessness almost gets him killed.

"Hunk, Pidge, Lance left to free the prisoners on board. I'm going to make sure he doesn't get himself killed," Keith informed. "Wait, if you and Lance are both going, then who is watching the door!?" Allura cut in. The automatic doors slid open and a wave of laser fire came down on Hunk and Pidge. "We were spotted!" Hunk yells over the coms. "Disabling the alarm system now!" Pidge yelled back.

Hunk put his shield up to cover himself and Pidge from the fire. It was up to her to finish downloading the files they needed for the mission to be a success, so by proxy it was up to Hunk to make sure that they don't die trying. The more he blasted though the more sentries seemed to come flocking in effectively blocking the only way into the room. "Are you two alright, get out of there!" Allura said over the coms. "No can do Princess the sentries are blocking our only exit." This room was made like a death trap, there was only one way in and out, and the sentries were non-stop firing from there.

An idea came to Hunk as he dodged a near hit from the purple lasers. "Pidge, the way things are looking I can't hold them off forever. I have an idea, but I'm gonna need your help. When I say so you're going to have to put up your shield." "Wait, I'm almost done here just give me one more minute!" "We don't have one more minute!" Hunk frantically yelled as more sentries filled the room pushing back Hunk's one man defense. "Ok fine, whenever you're ready," Pidge conceded.

Hunk made a beeline for the other side of the room, "Now!" Pidge put up her shield in time for the fire to stop being directed at Hunk and begin sailing towards her. "I really hope this works," she yelled over the din of laser fire, but Hunk didn't hear her as he took a running leap onto the metal wall and jumped off. He couldn't jump as high as Keith, but it gave him the perfect shot of where he wanted. He fired two precise turrets at either side of the door, and got ready for impact with the floor. It was a lot less graceful than he had planned, but Pidge only had time for a brief snicker before she had to shield against a stray laser.

Hunk was up and firing a second later, but the turrets were doing their job. The wave of sentries had significantly lessened. "Nice!" Pidge commented before going back to the monitors. "Well, I try," Hunk allowed himself a tiny bit of pride as he took on the role of guard. "Pidge, Hunk, please tell me that you're still alive," Allura's voice came through Hunk's helmet scratchily. It must have been damaged by his fall. "Still kicking Allura, and we obtained the necessary files for the mission. Sending them to you and Coran now," Pidge responded, "I just hope those two don't screw up the rescue mission they recklessly started," Pidge said rolling her eyes.  
————————

"Do you have any idea where you're even going!" Keith called from behind Lance. "A vague recollection of it, yes." Keith scoffed lightly and rolled his eyes at Lance's well structured plan. Lance continued, "I remember seeing a hallway lined with cells on our way to the control room, but if you want to be all cheeky about it, then remember no one forced you to come al—" Keith dragged Lance by the collar behind the wall they had just passed as two Galran soldiers walked by. "Why do you always have to try to be the hero," Keith breathed. They waited for the soldiers to pass with bated breaths.

"I swore I heard the alarm go off for a few ticks." "You're crazy, you can go investigate it if you want, but don't expect my help," the other Galran soldier retorted. "No way am I going down the hall with all those freaks. Those scientists at HQ 347 are crazy." "Yeah, they are real messed up. I heard...." the voices faded out of Lance's hearing, but all he registered was the part about the alarm being tripped. "The others!" Lance said lamely. 'How could he have been so stupid as to not remember that with both him and Keith gone there was no one left to guard Pidge and Hunk? That was his one job!' Lance tried to make a break for it, but Keith caught him by the collar once again. "Oh no you don't, you already ran off once. You started this mission, and now you have to commit to it." Lance put up his hands placatingly, "Okay geez! just stop doing that." "Doing what? Oh, you mean this," Keith smirked before grabbing the collar of Lance's armor and dragging him across the hall to the dimly lit corridor of prison cells all the while Lance muttered a series of curses under his breath.

"Lol, you got dragged," Pidge laughed over the coms. "You're alive!" Lance whisper yelled. "With no help from you," Pidge remarked. "I'm so sorry, but those prisoners are gonna be lab rats for the Galra; I had to do something," Lance defended. "Just be safe. We've completed the mission, so we're on our way to you guys," Hunk chimed in. "Alright, after we get the prisoners Lance and I will lead them to the escape pods. Just in case anything goes wrong, Allura, I need you to be ready to get the prisoners with the blue lion," Keith instructed. "But I've barely bonded with the Blue Lion," Allura pointed out worriedly. "It's just a precaution, Princess," Coran stated. "Alright team, Operation Lab Rat is a go," Lance says fist-pumping the air.

"Why lab rats?" Keith asks while slashing through the pin pad that controlled the lock on the door. "It makes sense doesn't it, not to mention it was also a great T.V show back in the early 21st century," Lance replies. "And you call me the hippie," Keith mutters.

Lance shoots open the door and looks inside the cell. It was dark, and looked like no one was in the cell. Lance was just about to start on another door when he heard soft sobbing coming from the corner of the cell. An alien with purple fur sat huddled in a corner. "I'm the red paladin of Voltron, and I'm here to rescue you," Lance said but was met with a sob followed closely by more weeping. "My name's Lance, why don't you get out of that corner, so I can get you somewhere safe, okay," he tried more gently.

This time he was rewarded by the furry alien standing up. Lance had seen quite a few aliens since becoming a paladin of Voltron, but this one was different. They had yellow eyes and their face was smooth and hairless unlike their arms and head which were covered in purple fur. An array of other inconsistencies made up their body including a long reptilian like tail. "You can say it, I'm hideous, an abomination if you will," the alien chuckled. "An abomination? You clearly haven't seen Pidge after being coffee deprived for 24 vargas. The aftermath still gives me nightmares," Lance playfully shuddered. "Hey!" Pidge's voice echoed over the coms.

The alien seemed comforted by that, and willingly left the cell. Now that they were in the light albeit it was dull, Lance could see that the alien was a full two heads taller than him and stood awkwardly like they weren't used to their height or limbs. As Keith and Lance freed more and more prisoners the differences in their features and demure attitudes made it clear that something was wrong. "Keith, what's going on with these guys?" Lance asked. Keith was about to respond when an alien who had previously been incapacitated came to. They took one look at their arms and began screaming hysterically.

Lance and Keith covered their ears, but the other aliens just looked on them sympathetically. "I think we were too late," he replied eyes widening, "These aliens have already been experimented on." Lance choked on his breath. He had failed before he even started, "No, no that can't be!" "Sadly, that is the truth," the tall purple haired alien responded, "I had been ready to rot in that cell before you all—Voltron found me. I may be content with starting a new life on a new planet but for many that is not the case. Oh excuse me, my name is Commander Kitz."

These people had everything taken from them, and then they even had their own bodies taken away from them. No wonder some were content to die, their spirit had been broken and with it went their hope. 'Wait a commander, but that would mean—' "You're Galran!" Keith said completing Lance's inner monologue. The commander chuckled softly, "Yes, I was half Galran. I was a commander here, but due to my own folly I was turned against. This place is like the wild as soon as someone turns on you those deranged scientists start eyeing you as their next experiment," he explained shakily, "Fusing two people together, splicing DNA, mutating genes, creating different species!" He was breathing heavily now and his eyes were glowing that familiar bright yellow color of the Galra. Keith placed his hand on his shoulder (which was quite a reach for him), "Hey, calm down. All that's over now." "I'm sorry, I'm usually on of the more stable prisoners," Commander Kitz stated.

"Do you think that you could rally the prisoners together. It's only a matter of time before a patrol comes by and spots us. We're heading towards the hangars where the escape pods are," Lance added. Commander Kitz nodded, "Oh, don't worry about being spotted. None of the guards ever come down this way for fear of us," and with that he went to go carry out the plan. Before long the two paladins and small army of prisoners were heading down the labyrinth of halls toward the hangars.

"Alright now make a left," Pidge said over the coms. Hunk and Pidge had retreated to the green lion which was resting on top of the ship. Lance and Keith had decided they needed more technical help than manpower for this mission. They were coming to a fork in the road up ahead. "Alright Pidge where to now?" Keith asked. "Um, I don't know this area isn't on the map. Maybe you took a wrong turn somewhere," she supplied. "No, I'm sure we didn't. Left, right, right, straight, left," Lance repeated . It was the correct sequence, but Pidge just couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her visual on them was also glitching. Were the cameras always this blurry?

The screen went black, and Pidge lost all visuals on Lance and Keith. Where Lance and Keith were the bright magenta lights began to flicker. "Pidge what's going?!" Lance called. "I don't know the screen just went black. I lost visual on you guys. I think you should keep moving, we don't know if this is a trap or not." "Let's go left," Keith instructed. "We just went left!" Lance cried. The prisoners were beginning to get anxious as the lights began flickering more. "Lance, we've got to go somewhere!" Keith argued. Finally, he relented and they took a sharp left turn at the fork, but came face to face with a white haired alien who was floating several feet off the ground tethered by a ball and chain clasped around their neck. "Good morning!" they said unfazed.

"It—it's the Nightmare! Take cover for your lives!"


	2. Nightmare

“Meal time, freak!” the soldier yelled as he messily slid some slop (because that was what it could only be described as) and a couple of dry bars of “something” through the door’s lower hatch. In a few days I would be given water, but only just enough to keep me functioning properly. I was naturally pale, but I wondered if some of my skin color owed its pigment to malnourishment. But who am I kidding, nothing about me is “natural.” I’m a Galran test subject, one of many. A freak, but I was their most successful freak so they keep me here. 

I was imprisoned in a room with high ceilings so I had room to float. One long chain kept me tethered to the floor if I felt like floating high which I was. Another ball and chain was clasped to my neck. It was as long as I was and kept me grounded when I felt like walking which I scarcely ever did. I hadn’t needed the second chain for a while now. I could for the most part control my gravitational powers. Sometimes I floated or came down when I didn’t mean to or I may let out a burst of force when I got angry, but that was about it. 

How I got these “powers” if you will is still a partial mystery. Maybe it was from the crap ton of species those insane Galran scientists had mixed together to create me or maybe it resulted from my overexposure to quintessence as a happy little accident. I didn’t know and I didn’t want to know; I just wanted it to end. Victory or death they say, but what I want is freedom or death. 

I keep on living in fear of my next “mission.” I started hearing that the neighboring planets call me the Nightmare. Honestly, that’s the closest thing I’ve had to a name for 3 and a half decapheebs. I used to just be called boy. The only reason I remember what those missions are about is because Kitzy would tell me after I woke up from blacking out. Missions are always closely followed by “appointments.” Doctor (and I use this term loosely) Korsac comes and takes me to the operating room. It was gray unlike everything else on this ship. That’s where he injects me with this glowing yellow liquid that he calls quintessence. The appointments are for experimentation and the missions are test runs. Test runs for what? Well, I hope I die before I get to find out. 

I don’t know much about what this quintessence stuff was supposed to do. But I do know that it runs through every living thing, and that I can sometimes feel it hum in machines. I know that if I get too close to something with quintessence, then it’ll be drawn to me. That’s a bad thing for machines and even worse thing for people. However, I wasn’t always like this. In the beginning, I was just a breeding project not a battery. The Galra were studying genes so they could further understand half-breeds. They put spliced DNA from different alien species together to create me. I grew faster than most considering that there were a host of factors to contribute to it. 

My body adapts exceptionally well, so back when I was still a breeding project Dr. Korsac kept injecting things into me. One of those “serums” as he called it dramatically changed my appearance. He said they had found an interesting species that resembled Alteans and he wanted to see how I would react to the blood. 

I must have reacted too well because after that he switched to injecting me with that quintessence stuff. I was raised by a care unit until I looked to be about the age of ten decapheebs. My care unit was made up of other prisoners who were “mildly successful” in Dr. Korsac’s breeding experiments. I only have a vague recollection of the memories there. I remember their teachings, their quotes, but not their faces only a name—Nasquia. There were multiple people who raised me, but they all went by Nasquia for some reason. 

I find myself wondering about what happened to Nasquia often. After all, the only thing I can do is sit and wonder about my situation until it’s time for my next mission. There aren’t any books so I make my own in my head. My favorites consist of a hero type character that has many flaws, but still is able to help people despite that. There isn’t anything to draw with so I use the slop they give me and create murals (read: funny brown splotches) on the wall. There aren’t any clocks so I use my nails to dig the dates into the cool metal. I have a lot of free time to sit and wonder.

I finally decided to eat, so I grappled onto the chain connected to my foot and used it as a rope to reach the floor. I was too lazy to slowly descend using my powers. I picked up one of the ration bars of “something” and munched on them quietly. I made the crumbs from the bar float upwards till they were level with the door’s upper hatch a.k.a my only window. Ordinarily this would serve as a signal to my friend Kitz that the coast was clear for him to visit, however I knew now that he wouldn’t come. 

He probably decided that I was freak like everybody else, and left me to rot here. His visits were the only thing I had come to look forward to. They were the only thing that gave me hope. Worse, the other soldiers could’ve found out that he was friends with me and done something horrible to him. That case was unlikely though. Most of the soldiers knew about our secret visits. He had been visiting me for 3 decaphebes now. The other soldiers were too afraid of me to say anything. The only reason why we keep up with the sneaking around is because it’s great fun. The only people we had to really watch out for were the scientists. Wait, what if Kitz has been capt—

An alarm blared through the ship like red hot fire. It only lasted for a few ticks before shutting off. I could hear the commotion being made outside of the heavy metal doors. This was my chance, perhaps rebel forces had come here for information. If I could find them, maybe I could convince them to take me along with them. I was a good addition to the team, so there was a possibility they might say yes! I could’ve tried to escape long ago, and I have made a few attempts in the past. I never got very far though considering that a) I didn’t know how to pilot a ship, b) I would be leaving Kitz, c) The moment I touched an escape pod it would probably blow up from all the quintessence, and d) I hate space.

I waited until the voices outside had receded, and then I crushed the chain attached to my foot with a strong pulse of gravity. I did the same with the door before making a break for it. I ran my hand against the wall looking for a new vein of quintessence. I leaped in happiness as I detected several westward. I was floating now, and I didn’t care. Maybe I’ll find Kitz, maybe I’ll get to make some new friends, or maybe I’ll do both! 

I probably wouldn’t end up making new friends since I’ve only ever really talked to two people all my life, but one could hope right? Look at me rambling in my dumb internal monologue. That’s all I do day after day, I should start trying to speak more instead of holding whole conversations with myself in my head, so I can be ready when I meet the rebels. “H-hi.” Too shy. “Hello, how are you?” I said in a deeper voice than intended. Too cringey. “Good morning!” Was it even morning? Could it be morning if you weren’t on a planet? My rambling thoughts kept me from seeing the two people I had run into, but a familiar vein of quintessence caused me to look up. “Kitzy!”

Operation Lab Rats  
The prisoners were thrown into disarray, and Commander Kitz seemed to be frozen in place. “Kitzy! I haven’t seen you for three movements. What happened to you?” the alien inquired. Kitz’s breathing sped up and he felt as if the world was closing in on him. “You! You were the reason I was thrown into that cell! That cell where I waited to have my blood and DNA tampered with for the fun of it! It was all you and your stupid mind games! You are the reason why I became a freak!” his voice broke on the word freak and the white haired alien who looked more like a human boy floated backwards unsteadily.

“Lance, we need to get these prisoners out of here. They’re going crazy!” “Go back to where we took that last left and tell Pidge and Allura to get ready for an extraction from there.” “Lance,” Keith dragged out, “just what are you planning to do this time?! Coran told us to stay away from this Nightmare character.” “You see that ball and chain right?Nightmare is just as much a prisoner here as any of these guys if not more so,” Lance gestured to the panicking aliens behind them. “Just go, like you said we don’t have much time.” “Fine, but if you end up in trouble don’t expect me to come and find you,” Keith said sourly. He turned back to the prisoners and began reasoning with them. 

Lance had the foresight to retreat deeper into the hall out of the sight of the haywire prisoners. “Hey, um Nightmare...sir. My name is Lance, and I am paladin of Voltron here to rescue you.” The white haired alien didn’t seem to respond instead they chose to mutter to themselves. “Did I do that to Kitzy? How can I live with myself if it was my fault? At least when it was those planets I never retained the memories, and I always had Kitz to help me through it, but now...? Oh quiznack, if Kitz dies I really don’t deserve to live. The one piece of a care unit I still had, and I just had to ruin it.” 

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. Commander Kitz has been through a lot, you can’t blame him for going off like he did,” Lance soothed. Nightmare had floated towards the ground during their rant and was now only a few inches above the cool metal floors. They wore no shoes and were dressed in a thin dirty gray dress-like outfit that—Lance almost gagged at the sight, ‘Was that blood?’ he thought. There on the bottom of Nightmare’s outfit was indeed blood. Nightmare wiped their eyes which were wet with unshed tears. “Who are you?” “I’m the red paladin of Voltron, Lance at your service,” Lance replied rather chivalrously in his own opinion.

“How are you the red one, but you’re armor and stuff are blue?” Nightmare asked with a tilt of the head. Their feet were now completely on the ground and they circled Lance curiously. “Well, there was a shuffling of the lions, so everyone kind of had to make the adjustment. But why change our armor and bayard y’know? It’s not really necessary,” Lance responded uncomfortably. Nightmare popped over Lance’s shoulder, “Kitz told me that his care unit used to tell him stories about Voltron.” Nightmare circled back around to face Lance, “How they saved the universe and all that stuff. Have you saved the universe? No offense, but you don’t look very old and wise,” ‘Care unit, what on Earth? Well they technically weren’t on Earth anymore, so these strange things should stop getting to him.’

“I’m apart of the second generation of Voltron. We may not have saved the entire universe yet, but we have defeated Zarkon,” Lance stated. Nightmare looked at their feet sullenly, “If Zarkon is gone, then why am I still here?” “Empires don’t just topple like that, but that’s why we’re here. Voltron is here to save as many people as we can, and that includes you,” Lance said placing an arm around the pale figure’s shoulder. 

A loud crash resonated through the halls as Lance struggled to keep his balance while maintaining his grip on Nightmare. He took note that Nightmare began to hover once again. “Coran, what was that?!” Lance said in a panic. “Not to worry number two, the blue lion just had a, uh, mishap in its landing.” Another crash echoed down the hallways, ‘What were they trying to do, alert the whole ship to their arrival?’ Lance thought. “Allura had this great idea of crashing the head of her lion into the side of the ship,” Pidge said too excited for the situation. “That wasn’t on purpose, Pidge,” Allura’s haggard voice came through. “No, but it was an easy and fast way of getting these prisoners out of here. Extraction phase of operation Lab Rats is commencing.” “Aww, you used my title.” “Lance, I think you should be more worried about how they’re here and you’re still so far away. Commander Kitz and I have gotten the prisoners safely to the breach. There’s no way the Galra didn’t hear that, so you might want to do less chatting and more running,” Keith cut in. “I don’t think it would be a very good idea to have Nightmare and the prisoners on the same lions. They seem pretty scared of him. I’ll go ahead with the original plan, and get to the hangars as fast as possible,” Lance explained.

“WHAT,” came the staticky reply from Hunk. “Wasn’t this Nightmare person exactly who Coran told us to avoid!” Hunk yelled. Lance felt a tug on his arm, “I can find the way to the hangars,” Nightmare said before floating down the opposite way. Lance followed wordlessly, but noticed how he kept a hand braced against the wall as if he were following something. “Guys, they’re just a kid. Nightmare is as much a prisoner here as everybody else. I think the Galra ran some weird experiments on them or something because they looks really close to a human,” Lance supplied. “Interesting, we may want to find out more about the Galra’s goal in experimenting on so many people,” Coran remarked. “You’re seriously endorsing this,” Hunk moaned. The coms went dead, and that was the last of the conversation. Lance hoped that Nightmare knew where they were going because from here on out they had no back up. 

“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Lance asks hesitantly as they passed a pillar that looked eerily similar to a pillar they had passed less than a dobosh ago. “Yes, I can trace the quintessence in the escape pods to the hangar. Normally it would be too hard to find, but since it’s a bunch of ships gathered in one place I can easily detect it,” Nightmare explained. ‘Tracing quintessence? I’ll have to report that back to Coran,’ Lance made a mental note to himself. “We’re here, if I’m not mistaken,” Nightmare says a bit sheepishly. Lance slashes through the lock on the door and both step into the hangar. “Great job!” Lance says putting his hand up for a high five. Nightmare stares at the gesture blankly. Lance notices their blood red irises and white hourglass shaped pupils. He shudders inwardly, ‘It’s like a poisonous spider saying don’t come near me,’ Lance thought. “This is a high five. You slap your hand together with mine in celebration of good work,” Lance explained. Nightmare looked pointedly at his feet, “I’m not allowed to touch people.” Lance chose not to question this revelation and instead made his way towards the closest escape pod. 

The doors burst open as sentries and Galran soldiers alike started shooting at the pair. It looks like the Galra finally got the memo. They’re really losing their touch, after all the team had been on this ship for at least 20 doboshes or more. “Get in, Nightmare!” Lance called. Nightmare was hesitant to touch the ship. ‘What if it happened again, then how would they get out of here?’ Nightmare reflected. “Come on, I’m not leaving you behind!” Lance yanked Nightmare up by their middle and plopped them down in the cockpit. ‘Wuh?’ was the brilliance of their inner monologue as this took place. 

Lance felt the weight of his bayard shift to the familiar sniper gun. He took a deep breath, aimed, and fired one exact shot at the system which controlled the air lock. Lance quickly scrambled back into the cockpit and began turning the pod around as it was sucked out into space. “Hold on!” he shouted. He may as well have not shouted it because his passenger was doing anything but listening. Nightmare had his arms wrapped tightly around his torso and his legs firmly tucked under him. Determined not to touch any part of the ship with his bare skin but also inwardly freaking out, Nightmare screwed his eyes shut and curled his toes as the first hints of space came into view. 

Nightmare didn’t have a problem with flying, but he had a serious bone to pick with space. In space he was useless, powerless, defenseless. In space he couldn’t breathe, he would freeze, he would endlessly and helplessly float. In space he couldn’t hope for death because the quintessence would keep him alive. It always seemed like it was the quintessence controlling him and not the other way around. 

“Uh, guys, we have a problem! These pods are a lot slower than I remember, and aren’t equipped with any weapons,” Lance said into the coms. Nightmare opened his eyes to see a white and cyan ship looming in the distance. However, he didn’t get the chance to marvel at the technology because the pod was always on the move. Swerve right, then left, barrel roll, double backwards to avoid a charging ship. Anymore and he would have to expel today’s rations. 

No one responded to Lance’s S.O.S. He didn’t know that Pidge, Keith, and Allura were on a neighboring planet that had a thick atmosphere that blocked radio communication where they were dropping off the prisoners. He didn’t know that Hunk’s helmet had been severely damaged from a fall he had taken earlier. And Lance especially did not know that none of this mattered since the escape pod was made of a metal that jammed radio transmissions just in case any prisoners ever tried to escape the Galran experimentation facility. Lance was all alone and in deep, deep—“Quiznak! I seriously don’t want to die out in deep space,” he lamented. Lance also didn’t know that this one statement would be his saving grace.

At the thought of Nightmare’s worst fears coming to fruition he had panicked. He slammed his hand down onto the escape pod’s dashboard and immediately something happened. Something is all it could be described as, as the pod flew so fast that Nightmare barely got the chance to remove his hand from the dashboard before the ship, supercharged on quintessence, flew smack dab into the surface of the Altean aircraft. 

Lance had to do a double take to figure out what had happened. One moment he had a horde of Galran fighter ships right behind him and the next he was face to face with the castle of lions. He turned to see a shaking Nightmare who was taking shallow quick breaths and shaking like a leaf. He caught them carefully by the head when they inevitably passed out. If that’s what happened when they touched a machine, then what would happen if they touched a person? Lance wasn’t eager to find out, so he settled Nightmare’s head back into the seat, and piloted the pod right in front of the bridge. It only took a few ticks before Coran saw him and opened up the hangar. 

Lance hesitantly went to pick up Nightmare by the head and knees princess-style. He was careful to avoid any bare skin and opted for the awkward position of cradling the teenager by their hair and knees. Lance started down the hallway before stopping. He thought about the idea of waking up in a cell after just escaping one and quickly reversed his trajectory and headed for his room. At least no one would be able to complain since he wasn’t bothering anyone else. He laid Nightmare down on his bed gently. The white haired teen was extremely pale (only a shade or two darker than his hair). He laid some of his own clothes out for Nightmare to wear. In human years they looked to be about only 14, and was a little bit shorter than Pidge. Their curious personality and fear of flying in space reminded Lance of another person he knew. ‘Stars, I can’t go on calling him Nightmare,’ he thought absently before leaving the room. This would be a looong de-briefing for such a “simple mission.”


	3. Operation Lab Rats

The prisoners were thrown into disarray, and Commander Kitz seemed to be frozen in place. “Kitzy! I haven’t seen you for three movements. What happened to you?” the alien inquired. Kitz’s breathing sped up and he felt as if the world was closing in on him. “You! You were the reason I was thrown into that cell! That cell where I waited to have my blood and DNA tampered with for the fun of it! It was all you and your stupid mind games! You are the reason why I became a freak!” his voice broke on the word freak and the white haired alien who looked more like a human boy floated backwards unsteadily.

“Lance, we need to get these prisoners out of here. They’re going crazy!” “Go back to where we took that last left and tell Pidge and Allura to get ready for an extraction from there.” “Lance,” Keith dragged out, “just what are you planning to do this time?! Coran told us to stay away from this Nightmare character.” “You see that ball and chain right?Nightmare is just as much a prisoner here as any of these guys if not more so,” Lance gestured to the panicking aliens behind them. “Just go, like you said we don’t have much time.” “Fine, but if you end up in trouble don’t expect me to come and find you,” Keith said sourly. He turned back to the prisoners and began reasoning with them. 

Lance had the foresight to retreat deeper into the hall out of the sight of the haywire prisoners. “Hey, um Nightmare...sir. My name is Lance, and I am paladin of Voltron here to rescue you.” The white haired alien didn’t seem to respond instead they chose to mutter to themselves. “Did I do that to Kitzy? How can I live with myself if it was my fault? At least when it was those planets I never retained the memories, and I always had Kitz to help me through it, but now...? Oh quiznack, if Kitz dies I really don’t deserve to live. The one piece of a care unit I still had, and I just had to ruin it.” 

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. Commander Kitz has been through a lot, you can’t blame him for going off like he did,” Lance soothed. Nightmare had floated towards the ground during their rant and was now only a few inches above the cool metal floors. They wore no shoes and were dressed in a thin dirty gray dress-like outfit that—Lance almost gagged at the sight, ‘Was that blood?’ he thought. There on the bottom of Nightmare’s outfit was indeed blood. Nightmare wiped their eyes which were wet with unshed tears. “Who are you?” “I’m the red paladin of Voltron, Lance at your service,” Lance replied rather chivalrously in his own opinion.

“How are you the red one, but you’re armor and stuff are blue?” Nightmare asked with a tilt of the head. Their feet were now completely on the ground and they circled Lance curiously. “Well, there was a shuffling of the lions, so everyone kind of had to make the adjustment. But why change our armor and bayard y’know? It’s not really necessary,” Lance responded uncomfortably. Nightmare popped over Lance’s shoulder, “Kitz told me that his care unit used to tell him stories about Voltron.” Nightmare circled back around to face Lance, “How they saved the universe and all that stuff. Have you saved the universe? No offense, but you don’t look very old and wise,” ‘Care unit, what on Earth? Well they technically weren’t on Earth anymore, so these strange things should stop getting to him.’

“I’m apart of the second generation of Voltron. We may not have saved the entire universe yet, but we have defeated Zarkon,” Lance stated. Nightmare looked at their feet sullenly, “If Zarkon is gone, then why am I still here?” “Empires don’t just topple like that, but that’s why we’re here. Voltron is here to save as many people as we can, and that includes you,” Lance said placing an arm around the pale figure’s shoulder. 

A loud crash resonated through the halls as Lance struggled to keep his balance while maintaining his grip on Nightmare. He took note that Nightmare began to hover once again. “Coran, what was that?!” Lance said in a panic. “Not to worry number two, the blue lion just had a, uh, mishap in its landing.” Another crash echoed down the hallways, ‘What were they trying to do, alert the whole ship to their arrival?’ Lance thought. “Allura had this great idea of crashing the head of her lion into the side of the ship,” Pidge said too excited for the situation. “That wasn’t on purpose, Pidge,” Allura’s haggard voice came through. “No, but it was an easy and fast way of getting these prisoners out of here. Extraction phase of operation Lab Rats is commencing.” “Aww, you used my title.” “Lance, I think you should be more worried about how they’re here and you’re still so far away. Commander Kitz and I have gotten the prisoners safely to the breach. There’s no way the Galra didn’t hear that, so you might want to do less chatting and more running,” Keith cut in. “I don’t think it would be a very good idea to have Nightmare and the prisoners on the same lions. They seem pretty scared of him. I’ll go ahead with the original plan, and get to the hangars as fast as possible,” Lance explained.

“WHAT,” came the staticky reply from Hunk. “Wasn’t this Nightmare person exactly who Coran told us to avoid!” Hunk yelled. Lance felt a tug on his arm, “I can find the way to the hangars,” Nightmare said before floating down the opposite way. Lance followed wordlessly, but noticed how he kept a hand braced against the wall as if he were following something. “Guys, they’re just a kid. Nightmare is as much a prisoner here as everybody else. I think the Galra ran some weird experiments on them or something because they looks really close to a human,” Lance supplied. “Interesting, we may want to find out more about the Galra’s goal in experimenting on so many people,” Coran remarked. “You’re seriously endorsing this,” Hunk moaned. The coms went dead, and that was the last of the conversation. Lance hoped that Nightmare knew where they were going because from here on out they had no back up. 

“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Lance asks hesitantly as they passed a pillar that looked eerily similar to a pillar they had passed less than a dobosh ago. “Yes, I can trace the quintessence in the escape pods to the hangar. Normally it would be too hard to find, but since it’s a bunch of ships gathered in one place I can easily detect it,” Nightmare explained. ‘Tracing quintessence? I’ll have to report that back to Coran,’ Lance made a mental note to himself. “We’re here, if I’m not mistaken,” Nightmare says a bit sheepishly. Lance slashes through the lock on the door and both step into the hangar. “Great job!” Lance says putting his hand up for a high five. Nightmare stares at the gesture blankly. Lance notices their blood red irises and white hourglass shaped pupils. He shudders inwardly, ‘It’s like a poisonous spider saying don’t come near me,’ Lance thought. “This is a high five. You slap your hand together with mine in celebration of good work,” Lance explained. Nightmare looked pointedly at his feet, “I’m not allowed to touch people.” Lance chose not to question this revelation and instead made his way towards the closest escape pod. 

The doors burst open as sentries and Galran soldiers alike started shooting at the pair. It looks like the Galra finally got the memo. They’re really losing their touch, after all the team had been on this ship for at least 20 doboshes or more. “Get in, Nightmare!” Lance called. Nightmare was hesitant to touch the ship. ‘What if it happened again, then how would they get out of here?’ Nightmare reflected. “Come on, I’m not leaving you behind!” Lance yanked Nightmare up by their middle and plopped them down in the cockpit. ‘Wuh?’ was the brilliance of their inner monologue as this took place. 

Lance felt the weight of his bayard shift to the familiar sniper gun. He took a deep breath, aimed, and fired one exact shot at the system which controlled the air lock. Lance quickly scrambled back into the cockpit and began turning the pod around as it was sucked out into space. “Hold on!” he shouted. He may as well have not shouted it because his passenger was doing anything but listening. Nightmare had his arms wrapped tightly around his torso and his legs firmly tucked under him. Determined not to touch any part of the ship with his bare skin but also inwardly freaking out, Nightmare screwed his eyes shut and curled his toes as the first hints of space came into view. 

Nightmare didn’t have a problem with flying, but he had a serious bone to pick with space. In space he was useless, powerless, defenseless. In space he couldn’t breathe, he would freeze, he would endlessly and helplessly float. In space he couldn’t hope for death because the quintessence would keep him alive. It always seemed like it was the quintessence controlling him and not the other way around. 

“Uh, guys, we have a problem! These pods are a lot slower than I remember, and aren’t equipped with any weapons,” Lance said into the coms. Nightmare opened his eyes to see a white and cyan ship looming in the distance. However, he didn’t get the chance to marvel at the technology because the pod was always on the move. Swerve right, then left, barrel roll, double backwards to avoid a charging ship. Anymore and he would have to expel today’s rations. 

No one responded to Lance’s S.O.S. He didn’t know that Pidge, Keith, and Allura were on a neighboring planet that had a thick atmosphere that blocked radio communication where they were dropping off the prisoners. He didn’t know that Hunk’s helmet had been severely damaged from a fall he had taken earlier. And Lance especially did not know that none of this mattered since the escape pod was made of a metal that jammed radio transmissions just in case any prisoners ever tried to escape the Galran experimentation facility. Lance was all alone and in deep, deep—“Quiznak! I seriously don’t want to die out in deep space,” he lamented. Lance also didn’t know that this one statement would be his saving grace.

At the thought of Nightmare’s worst fears coming to fruition he had panicked. He slammed his hand down onto the escape pod’s dashboard and immediately something happened. Something is all it could be described as, as the pod flew so fast that Nightmare barely got the chance to remove his hand from the dashboard before the ship, supercharged on quintessence, flew smack dab into the surface of the Altean aircraft. 

Lance had to do a double take to figure out what had happened. One moment he had a horde of Galran fighter ships right behind him and the next he was face to face with the castle of lions. He turned to see a shaking Nightmare who was taking shallow quick breaths and shaking like a leaf. He caught them carefully by the head when they inevitably passed out. If that’s what happened when they touched a machine, then what would happen if they touched a person? Lance wasn’t eager to find out, so he settled Nightmare’s head back into the seat, and piloted the pod right in front of the bridge. It only took a few ticks before Coran saw him and opened up the hangar. 

Lance hesitantly went to pick up Nightmare by the head and knees princess-style. He was careful to avoid any bare skin and opted for the awkward position of cradling the teenager by their hair and knees. Lance started down the hallway before stopping. He thought about the idea of waking up in a cell after just escaping one and quickly reversed his trajectory and headed for his room. At least no one would be able to complain since he wasn’t bothering anyone else. He laid Nightmare down on his bed gently. The white haired teen was extremely pale (only a shade or two darker than his hair). He laid some of his own clothes out for Nightmare to wear. In human years they looked to be about only 14, and was a little bit shorter than Pidge. Their curious personality and fear of flying in space reminded Lance of another person he knew. ‘Stars, I can’t go on calling him Nightmare,’ he thought absently before leaving the room. This would be a looong de-briefing for such a “simple mission.”


	4. You’ve got some explaining to do

Lance sat in the kitchen; it had been a long day and he was snacking on some well-deserved food goo. He sorely wished that Hunk was here to whip up one of his masterpieces right now, but he was in the bridge with Coran, and Lance had had his fill of space for *today. However, Hunk was a nervous person and in being the caring guy that he is, Lance was met with his presence anyway. 

“Lance, are you okay?” was the first of Hunk’s many questions. Lance answered each in appreciation for his best friend’s kindness otherwise he would have fallen asleep right there in his goo. The mission had taken a lot out of Lance especially since what was supposed to be a simple mission turned into a prison break. Not to mention that he had met a dangerous human-looking alien who had weird quintessence powers. Oh, and he can’t forget that moment when he thought he was for sure going to die, but instead was rocketed towards the castle at Mach speed. In short, Lance was tired, and there was a alien in his bed.

“So, where is the “Nightmare,” Hunk said after his onslaught of questions about both the mission and Lance’s health. “Oh, he’s (at least I think he’s a he) in my room,” Lance said coolly. Hunk’s face would have been comical if Lance wasn’t having hallucinations of a certain white haired person sitting down next to him. He laid his hand on top of the floofy white mane, ‘Nope, not a hallucination,’ he thought numbly. “What are you doing out of bed?” Lance asked. “I woke up in a weird room and panicked, so I traced you,” was his response. Granted this sentence would raise a few questions for someone who had never seen Nightmare practice this ability, so Hunk justifiably freaked out. “Y-y-you traced Lance?” Turning back to the yellow paladin, “He means that he followed my quintessence here. Apparently that’s something you can do when you’ve been over exposed to quintessence,” Lance clarified. 

Nightmare calmly watched the two interact, the yellow one (shown by his armor) was a bit of a worrywart and the blue one, Lance, was doing his best to explain things. “Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce you two. Hunk this is uh...Nightmare and Nightmare this is Hunk, the yellow paladin of Voltron.” Hunk held out his hand albeit reluctantly, but Nightmare simply looked at it. “It’s a handshake, you take a person’s hand and give it a firm shake as a greeting, but you don’t have to,” came Lance’s response. Lance silently noted that Nightmare wasn’t wearing the clothes he had laid out for him but instead was wearing his same dirty dress thing. Nightmare once again looked sullen, “It’s not that I want to be rude Mr. Hunk, but I’m not allowed to touch people because it could hurt them.” 

Hunk softened at that and began digging around in the kitchen looking for something. Nightmare looked over the breakfast bar curiously to catch a glimpse of what Hunk was doing. Finally, he returned with a box of clear disposable gloves. “I use them when I cook, but these Altean gloves are a lot sturdier than Earth ones (stars know what Coran makes in here). Try them on,” Hunk holds out the box for Nightmare to take. He tries them on and grins happily; he sticks his hand out right in front of Hunk’s face who is noticeably caught off guard. They shake hands, and Lance has the sneaking feeling of wanting to take a picture or scrapbook or something stupid like that. 

“We still have one more thing to discuss. Your name, what’s it gonna be because I’m not going to keep on calling you Nightmare,” Lance asked. “Uh, I used to be called Boy or Kid before I was given a title,” Nightmare responded. ‘Oh, so I was right,’ Lance thought in passing. Hunk huffed indignantly, “The Galra really did take everything from people,” he muttered, “That’s not exactly a real name, why don’t you name yourself after something you like?” The first thought that came to Nightmare’s mind was naming himself Kitz, but after what he saw back on the ship it felt almost traitorous to give himself a name that no longer wanted to identify with him anymore. 

Nightmare blinked back some tears before speaking, “Azalea.” Lance was surprised at this, “Like the flower?” Nightmare’s face said that he was perfectly confused, “No, there’s this Galran dish that Kitzy used to ramble about called Azalea.” Hunk and Lance relaxed at this, who knew millions of light years away that there was a word common between the English and Galran language. “Well nice to meet you Azalea, my name’s Lance McClain,” Lance reintroduced himself and shook Azalea’s hand. “Woah, woah, wait, you have two names!” Azalea said excitedly. Lance wished he wouldn’t be so loud for his growing headache’s sake, but maybe this would slowly wake him up because the way things stand he wouldn’t be getting to sleep for a while. Azalea then turned to Hunk, “Do you have two names also?!” Hunk nodded his head but a smile was playing at the corner of his lips. He could only stay wary of a kid like this for so long, “Yep, my name’s Hunk Garrett.”

Azalea looked thoroughly surprised as he slumped down into his seat. His legs were still tucked under him in the chair as they had been in the escape pod. ‘It must’ve been a habit he developed from not wanting to touch anything,’ Lance observed. “So let me get this straight, how many names do people usually have where you come from?” “Well, on Earth people might have three, a first, middle, and last/family name. Some people only have a first and family name, and other people have more names due to compound names or just depending on the region they’re in,” Lance answered. “Aww, I want three names, too!” Azalea whined. Lance smiled remembering the tantrums his little brother would have. “Technically it’s up to you since you’re picking your names. Generally a parent does that,” Hunk explained. Azalea sobered up a little, “These things called parents and families are they like care units?” Lance nodded, ‘So that’s what he was talking about earlier.’ 

“I’ve never had a real care unit before, but Nasquia and Kitz were probably the closest. Can my name be Azalea Kitz Nasquia?” Azalea knew that Kitz didn’t want him anymore, but he still very much wanted and needed Kitz. Lance places an arm around Azalea, “Of course.” The name sounded strange to Hunk, but most foreign names usually do, and he vaguely remembered hearing the name Kitz from their many conversations over the coms. 

“How about you go rest up in my room, and I can explain the mission to the team by myself. And after that we’ll get you some new clothes and burn these ones in a bonfire,” Lance cajoled in a voice just above a whisper. Azalea didn’t know what a bonfire was, but he nodded anyway, “Only if you and Hunk promise to tell me your third names when I wake up.” Lance promised as did Hunk, so Azalea made his way back to Lance’s room relying on his memory rather than the quintessence to get him there. 

“No offense Lance, but you look like the one who needs to rest up. Are you sure that you’re okay, buddy?” Hunk inquired. Lance could feel the tendrils of exhaustion pulling at him once again, but he ignored them in favor of blinking rapidly a few times. “Yeah I’m tired, but I really want to get this de-briefing out of the way before I hit the hay besides there’s sort of an alien in my bed.” Hunk nodded but wasn’t 100% satisfied with that answer and Lance could tell after being friends for so long. “Hunk, I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Lance chided. 

An eccentric orange haired man came into Hunk’s view before he did Lance’s. “There you all are!” Coran yelled enthusiastically causing Lance to jump in his seat. “I’m up! I’m up!” Hunk couldn’t stop himself from laughing, but he didn’t feel guilty when Lance shot him a dirty look. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you two. The rest of the paladins are back from their mission on planet Remizen. You’re needed in the bridge for a de-briefing,” Coran happily said. Lance groaned and seriously considered face planting into his leftover food goo. “Oh come on number two,” Coran chirped while pulling him along with his Altean strength. 

They entered the bridge to see a ticked off Keith and a slightly frazzled and worried Allura. Pidge was working on pulling something up, so the yellow and blue paladins went to take their seats. They only de-briefed in the fancy negotiation room when they had company, so Lance sorely missed the presence of swivel chairs. “How did this go from a simple get the information and go mission to a full on prison break?” Allura inquired. Lance raised his hand because he felt that that was what he should do in this situation as to not dig his trench any further. “It was my fault princess. I saw the prisoners in need and knew that if we didn’t help them then they would live the rest of their lives in those cells as lab experiments.” Allura sighed but smiled softly, “I admire your heart Lance I really do, but next time though please stick to the plan or at least notify someone of what you’re doing, so we aren’t left open to attack.” The stab Lance had felt after finding out about Hunk and Pidge being discovered came back full force. ‘Why do I always need to play the hero?’

“Did all the prisoners make it to planet Remizen safely?” Hunk asked. “Yes, but they were considerably and understandably shaken up by seeing this Nightmare character. We left them in the kind hands of the Zen people, but I still feel uncomfortable about dropping them off on other people,” Allura replied. Lance tensed at the title Nightmare, “Lance where did you put Nightmare after getting them off the ship?” Keith said turning to Lance. “Well, I decided that after seeing how badly the other prisoners reacted to Azalea that the best possible solution would be to keep him as far away from them as possible,” Lance responded, gracefully tip toeing around the bush. Keith pinched the bridge of his nose in that exasperated way he does, “Please don’t tell me you took a dangerous alien life form and allowed them on the ship.” “Affirmative,” was Lance’s only response. 

There was silence in the bridge for a few ticks. The kind of silence that occurred when you had reached the top of a rollercoaster and were waiting for the drop. A suspenseful silence filled the room before Allura spoke in a surprisingly calm manner, “Where are you keeping him?” “He’s resting in my room.” “Okay, when he wakes up we’ll assess his threat level and prepare a guest room,” Allura stated. “Allura, you can’t really be considering keeping an alien named Nightmare on the Castle of Lions can you?!” Keith squawked in disbelief. “His name is Azalea actually,” Lance responded raising his voice to match Keith’s. Before Kieth could respond Allura cut in, “He was a prisoner in that awful place just like the others and through no fault of his own he became like he is. Is it not Voltron’s job to defend all corners of the universe and it’s people? Besides we need to find out why the Galra have been experimenting with cross-breeding.” After Keith looked thoroughly cowed Lance felt the need to add, “They’ve also been experimenting with quintessence. Apparently Azalea is their only successful ‘project.’ That’s probably how he got the moniker Nightmare in any case.” 

“They’ve been experimenting with quintessence! Well, that certainly escalated things. We should observe this...Azalea to find out how far the Galra have gotten in their research,” Coran pitched. Hunk had a queasy feeling in his stomach, “I don’t think we should start studying him under a microscope right off the bat. I mean the kid has been through a lot, and more people using him as research might not go over well.” If he was Azalea he definitely wouldn’t want to go from being experimented on to being studied. 

Keith was at a loss. It seemed like everyone was perfectly content with keeping an alien on the ship in which they lived. Well technically there were already two aliens on the ship, but the team had at least built up enough trust with them to know that they weren’t going to literally stab them in the back while they were sleeping. Keith was contemplating how he was going to find out the truth about this Nightmare guy when Pidge spoke. “Hey guys, I know there’s a whole discussion going on about Night—Azalea,” Pidge said catching Lance’s glare, “but maybe we should analyze the information we actually went looking for on that mission before jumping to any conclusions.” ‘Thank you Pidge, at least someone here is keeping a level head,’ Keith thought.

“Apparently there’s this place called HQ 347 which is where that experimentation facility reports to. They’re the head of these cross breeding facilities, and it looks like they’re mostly experimenting with half Galrans,” Pidge read off from the monitor she had set up. “Their own,” Allura said disgustedly. “They’re goal is to find out more about genetics, so they can make the perfect weapon. Most notable experiments include the Nightmare, Stranzol, and Nano,” Pidge finished. ‘Oh gosh, they’re multiplying,’ Keith thought. 

“That settles it then. We can’t let Azalea fall back into the hands of the Galra and the safest place from the Galra is here,” Lance declared with half the mind to get up and leave the bridge so he could face plant into a pillow. He refrained. “Lance is right. Even if we had reason to believe Azalea was dangerous, then the best place to keep an eye on him would be on the Castle of Lions,” Pidge pointed out. “But we do have reason to believe he’s dangerous!” Keith exclaims. “Coran, weren’t you the one who said neighboring planets have been complaining about a person named Nightmare.” Coran frowned a little, “Yes, I guess I did.” Lance had had it up to here with Keith’s crap, “What is wrong with you Keith?! Azalea is all alone in space and has had everything ripped away from him by the Galra! Can’t you understand that?”

A silence fell over the room, but not like the previous one. This one was thick with tension not suspense, and it was slowly filling with regret as Lance realized what he had just said. “Of course I understand, Lance,” came Keith’s voice in a deadly calm tone, “I understand perfectly, and have understood for most of my life what it feels like to to be alone in the world, so excuse me if I value the team’s life more than you do.” Keith did what Lance first wanted to do and he exited, hence ending the conversation. 

Lance knew he had been insensitive and had crossed an invisible line, but he couldn’t bring himself to apologize as the team began streaming out of the bridge. No one really said anything, but the general consensus was that they would all get some sleep because clearly it was the drowsiness causing problems and not them. That was the reason Allura would later give, but Lance knew otherwise. Lance would say what he said again if it pounded some much needed sense into Keith’s brain. He knew he shouldn’t feel like this, that he shouldn’t feel...so protective over someone he had just met, but he couldn’t help it. The lonely kid out in space who can go from scared to hyper in .03 ticks just gave him a funny familiar feeling. 

Lance was in front of his door before he realized that there was an alien still very much in his bed. So Lance trudged around the castle until he found Allura who tiredly showed him to a guest room along the Paladin’s hall with basic necessities including a bed, desk, bathroom, dresser, and of course a window with a lovely view of endless space which Lance promptly shuttered after remembering the events that occurred in the escape pod. He dragged his feet down the hall to his room and was prepared to have to carry Azalea into his room or give up and sleep in the guest room himself. However, Lance was not prepared to see Azalea who was dressed in baggy cargo pants and a t-shirt two sizes too big, which was practically hanging off his shoulders, bouncing on his bed. 

“Hey, this is really fun!” he exclaimed with each word punctuated by a jump. “Come join me Lance!” Lance, if he had the energy, would have happily joined Azalea in his antics, but since this is not the case he instead leaned on the doorway and watched from a distance. Once Azalea had thoroughly tired himself out he stopped jumping on the bed and sat on it cross legged. “What’s wrong? And no sugar coating,” Azalea thought to add. “‘M just a little tired. Why aren’t you asleep?” Lance answered honestly. Azalea shrugged, “Couldn’t sleep in a different place, with bright lights, and this weird thing.” Lance chuckled, “You mean a bed?” Azalea’s eyes widened, “This is an Earthlings idea of a bed! You guys are really smart,” Azalea said in reverence. “You have your own y’know. It’s down the hall,” Lance held his hand out for Azalea to grab. He did after a tick of hesitation, and hand in hand they walked the short distance to Azalea’s room and said goodnight. 

Lance flopped down on his own bed at long last. He didn’t know how he was going to get to sleep with so many things fighting for a spot in his mind. His headache was getting worse, and he’d have to ask Allura if she knew of any medicines that could help him. He should really apologize to Keith—he lacked tact in saying what he did. Yes, that’s it, tact was the word he was looking for. Azalea also needed new clothes, so Lance added that to his list of things he would have to bother Allura about. Lance kept on rambling in his internal monologue until his eyes fluttered shut.

All was finally silent. A kind of silence that was different from the previous ones. The calm type of silence that promised new mornings. The peaceful kind of silence that Lance drifted to sleep in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wondering if today would become “toquintant” in space lol (read: I am irrelevant)


	5. In the Dead of Night

Pidge shuffles out of the Bridge with the rest of the paladins and Coran. She makes her way to her room and away from the tense silence. Everyone was getting ready for bed including Pidge, but she decided to take a quick walk to clear her head. She understood why Keith was skeptical of Azalea, but how was this any different from their other rescues? This alien had no home, needed to learn how to safely manage their power, and was key to finding out the Galra’s next move. Pidge had to admit, even though it felt a little wrong to do so, that he was an asset. 

With all the thoughts ironically running through her head and her mind trying to make sense of it all, Pidge had not noticed that her feet had unconsciously taken her to Keith’s door. ‘Curiosity may have killed the pidgeon, but satisfaction will bring it back,’ she smiled to herself as she prepared to enter the angsty teen’s bedroom. She knocked once, very quickly, before entering. This was Pidge’s usual custom as she never allowed a chance for the victim to click out of whatever they had been watching. So far the only blackmail material she had was that Lance was looking for ways to D.I.Y face masks in space. 

“Go away,” the lump under the covers said. Keith despite trying to be stand-offish looked quite childish with the covers over his head in his effort to hide from Pidge. She took a seat on the side of the bed and faced the door, “Don’t be like that. I’m only here because you want me to be here.” Keith tossed the covers aside and glared at Pidge, “When did I ever ask for your help?” She smirked back in accomplishment, “You didn’t, but that stormy exit was a scream for help as far as I could see.” Keith had to stop and wonder whether he was being over dramatic in that moment. No, he decided, he had been fairly reasonable considering what Lance said.

Keith brushed his hand over his face sloppily, “Pidge, why did you come here? We both know that you could seriously use the sleep.” He was right of course; at the mention of sleep Pidge’s eyelids seemed to have gotten ten times heavier, but she would be remiss to not find out what was eating at Keith. “Don’t worry about me; I’m nocturnal. I just want to make sure that you don’t stab Azalea in his sleep.” Pidge had been trying to lighten the mood, but this only seemed to make Keith glower.

“I don’t know how you guys can just trust a random alien you picked up off the street that has strange powers,” Keith justified. “Yeah, I can see that, but by that logic we should’ve all piled back into the blue lion the moment we met Allura and Coran. This whole save the universe thing is crazy, but it’s our reality. Besides, if we have Azalea, then the Galra don’t, which is better for our cause and Azalea’s health,” Pidge reasoned. Keith could see that Azalea was all skin and bones and the bloody dress-like outfit he wore was most likely stained with his own blood. He wanted to help him, he really did, but this all was just too much. “I just don’t think endangering Voltron is worth it. What if his real goal was to steal the Lions, what then?” “We’re not the ones in danger here though,” Pidge countered. “I know Nightmare needs our help; I just feel like we have other more important things to be worrying about, I just—I don’t, ugh!” Keith stumbled. Pidge looked at her feet that just barely hit the ground from her sitting position, “Is Voltron the only thing this is about?” 

Keith had the answer to that question ready on his lips, but seeing Pidge look so small and vulnerable made him reluctant to share it. After a moment of silence he sighed, “I just don’t want to lose anymore people that...” the rest of his sentence felt as if it had gotten stuck in his throat. Everything in his head was telling him to shut up, to close his mouth because they’re fighting a war and he can’t afford to be weak. Pidge looked at him quietly with amber eyes; she was waiting for him to finish. “I don’t want to lose anymore people that... that I care about,” Keith finally choked out. Pidge‘s face showed surprise but was quickly reset into a frown. She placed her hands on Keith’s shoulder and slightly shook him with the force of her words, “Keith, we’re going to find Shiro just like we’ll find Matt and my dad.” Just like that, Keith was forced to face the real reason why he was so troubled by this whole ordeal. 

Shiro. Keith’s shoulders slumped and he nodded his head in defeat. Shiro was still missing, and Keith still felt the hole he had left. Pidge leaned her head on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, we’ll find them.” Keith allows this because it was Pidge, and he knows Pidge. She was like him. She’d never accept help herself, so this was her way of disguising her fear. He draped his arm around her because it wasn’t just him who felt the hole someone had left in their wake, it wasn’t just him scrambling to fill this hole, and he wasn’t the only one who felt alone. Pidge had a lot to deal with on her own, yet she still put up with his mess. They sat with their eyes closed and breathing aligned until the night took them over as it had their companions, and they fell asleep.  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Azalea laid in bed with his eyes glued to the ceiling. When the doors had closed it had plunged him into darkness. In the Galran prison the lights had always stayed on, dimmed but on; the only place where it was this dark was cruel, unforgiving space. He was frightened, and he was scared, but worst of all he was alone. How could he seek out his rescuers for more help when they had already given him so much. Lance had promised him new clothes and had showed him this nice room with a weird, fluffy bed that someone named Allura had prepared for him. No, he couldn’t bother them anymore. It was simply out of the question. He would just have to close his eyes and go to sleep.

But still the darkness persisted. Behind his eyelids was nothing but vast darkness that brought back painful memories, cold and helpless memories. He opened his eyes and there was darkness, he closed them and there was darkness. He was starting to get frantic and sorely regretted not first asking Lance how to turn back on the lights. He was trapped, and for a brief moment he pondered if this was worst than being on that wretched ship. No, here he wouldn’t be able to hurt anybody and here he would only have to make it through this night before the torture would end. In that forsaken ship, the torture was perpetual.

Azalea got out of bed and felt along the wall for the door. He came upon a tassel of some sort and assuming it was the light he yanked it. It revealed space. Azalea went flailing backwards and tumbled back into the strange bed, but not before he hit his head on the metal bedpost. Once again there was darkness, but this one was calmer. It didn’t engulf all of Azalea’s mind nor did it clammer for control over his eyes. It simply was, and then...it wasn’t.

He was back in that magenta lit prison, and he had a hazy view of the steel doors sliding open. Dr. Korsac walked in, he was wearing a surgeon’s mask which no doubt shielded a maniacal grin from view. Azalea never knew why he enjoyed causing others pain, but he assumed it had something to do with his personal life. After all, only hurt people hurt people, and then we all end up broken sooner or later. Dr. Korsac beckoned him with a wave of his hand, but Azalea didn’t feel his body move. He wanted to move so Korsac wouldn’t lay his hands on him, but he remained firmly set. 

“Oh, come now pup,” Dr. Korsac drawled, he grabbed Azalea’s arm roughly and dragged him out of the room kicking but not screaming. He knew by now that his screams fell on deaf ears, and he would not give that satisfaction to Dr. Korsac. He was dragged into a familiar gray room. He was told that gray was a calming color, but it only ever seemed to make him want to vomit. It was a cool color that was devoid of life and seemingly mocked him with its apathy. He was criticizing colors now, oh stars! 

Being strapped to the sterile metal table was always his least favorite part of his “appointments.” The operating table was icy cold so much so that it sent chills up Azalea’s rigid spine. He looked around with wild eyes, he was looking for an escape. His mind never once lingered on what would happen if a person was crushed by gravity. Azalea knew of the atrocities he had been the cause of even if he didn’t remember them. He didn’t want to remember, he didn’t want to become a murderer because that would be more painful to him than to Dr. Korsac. So, Azalea sat and waited for the yellow substance to be pumped underneath his skin. It melded into him and became part of his being, and by association Azalea hated all of his being. 

The feeling was one of extreme warmth; it was not uncomfortable by this point, but it wasn’t welcomed. The warmth coursed through his blood and filled every part of his body with the same bubbly feeling. He could feel the power seep into his nerves and speak to his brain. “Expel.” And he did, he let out a crack of raw quintessence that had effervesced in his blood. Dr. Korsac ducked, but Azalea didn’t miss his face of fear. He would cherish that image for decapheebs to come. The peel of quintessence found it’s counterparts and grouped together.  
It began to look for the largest quantity of quintessence near by—Azalea. 

Azalea braced himself for pain; this was what the quintessence did. It built and sizzled in his blood till it couldn’t stand its flesh vessel before it left, and upon realizing it couldn’t survive on its own it came back to him. Azalea could bet his freedom on the notion that he knew more about quintessence than Dr. Korsac could ever dream of. Quintessence wasn’t a new element to be harnessed and controlled. Quintessence was older than all of them, it was in everything, and it was alive. It was alive, and it was fickle. It constantly strained for freedom which in a way reminded Azalea of himself. Maybe that was why it bonded to him so easily. 

After the brief but excruciating electrocution of what seemed to be every cell in his body, Azalea felt the gentle hum of quintessence under his skin. It reminded him that he had power, but he didn’t need nor want a reminder. The new addition to his body caused him to feel incredibly tired despite just waking up. He leaned his bead back onto the cold table and let the darkness wash over him. It was cold like before, but now he had the memory of warmth from the the quintessence fresh in his mind. 

He opened his eyes up to see the magenta lights above him again. He was lying on the ground now, but he had no intention (and doubted he could move anyway) of getting up. “One of these days I’m going to get you out.” Azalea’s eyes darted to the side at the familiarity of the deep voice. The only thing keeping him fastened to the floor were these stupid lucid dream rules. “Kitz...well if you do break me out I’m going to have to be the brawn and the brains aren’t I?” dream Azalea said. He hadn’t really said anything, but the dream had played out identical to reality.

Kitz laughed, they were both laying on the dirty floor of Azalea’s cell. “Zaley, I think you have misunderstood. Obviously your job would be the brawn and brains, my job is to stand and look pretty.” “So you’ll distract the guards with your beauty as we make our grand escape,” dream Azalea  
responded with a voice trembling with laughter. “Oh, Dr. Korsac didn’t see you there. Don’t mind me as I sashay by,” Kitz drawled in a flirtatious tone. Azalea and Kitz howled with laughter for a solid 30 ticks, but the real Azalea couldn’t help but feel a stab of nostalgia. 

“Hey, why’d you call me Zaley?” Kitz snorted, “I can’t just call you kid forever.” “But what is that?” Azalea asked. “Azalea is a Galran dish that’s very sweet with a spicy sauce. Like you it makes people’s stomachs bubble with indigestion,” came Kitz’s retort. “And here I thought you were being sweet for once,” Azalea muttered as he went back to staring at the purple hued steel of the ceiling. “I don’t want to be named after a dish that gives people indigestion. Pick something else.” “I refuse. It would be a crime not to name you according to your personality which does in fact leave people with slight nausea,” Kitz jeered. Dream Azalea hit him in the stomach lazily. “I hate you.” “Aw, but I love you.” The real Azalea’s heart twisted uncomfortably at that, and he didn’t doubt that he would probably be crying if it wasn’t for the fact that he was physically unable. 

All around him the scene seemed to change, and he hoped it would be the last change of the night. Azalea blinked and found himself in the same room without Kitz this time. A striking pain made him aware of the injuries in his arms as he tried to get up. He was slumped against a wall breathing heavily before Kitz came through the door in his full uniform. “G’wanu, you okay? They really overdid it, I’m so sorry I can’t be more useful.” Kitz was wearing his trademark expression of worry and guilt. It made Azalea wonder how much he must hate him now if this is how they were before. “Kitz, I want to know what happened this time. Don’t sugar coat it anymore. I’ve never felt this bad before, and I want to know what happened to the people on that planet because of it.” Kitz sighed, “You know this isn’t your fault. Stars, you weren’t even conscious when it happened!” “But I gave them the means! Without me they have to take great measures in order to capture a planet, but because I’m here the Galra have practically enslaved this entire galaxy!” Azalea argued vehemently. 

“Fine you want to know what happened so much, fine! It was standard procedure for a ‘mission.’ They would capture the capital city through surrender after they used you to demonstrate their power over the outer cities. Some new commander who wanted to prove himself took it a step too far and began attacking the capital with your quintessence powering their stupid death machines. The aliens started fighting back, so one thing lead to another, y’know ‘vrepit sa’ and all that, and they ended up demolishing that capital city. They used that group of people as an example to the other aliens on the planet and got the planet to come under their control.” “So, you’re saying....that an entire species was practically wiped out because of me,” Azalea’s voice was shaky and so was his vision. Kitz’s voice softened, “You shouldn’t be so worked up especially right after a mission. Get some rest, don’t think about it. I’ll be back later to check on you.” 

Kitz got up and left the room but not before leaving his last piece of wisdom. “Hey, it’s their stupid machines and Dr. Korsac to blame not you. I know this probably means nothing to you right now, but I’ve never blamed you for all that’s happened. You’re family and family sticks together. Night, kid.” Azalea remained on the grimy floor for a few more doboshes. He remembered that during this time he could only think about the the thousands of people killed and thousands of families separated on that planet. He always failed to see the important things in a moment. Kitz had just called him family, and he hadn’t even registered it. This time he really did cry, and rather than a planet Azalea mourned the loss of a family member. 

When the room started to shift Azalea wanted to grab onto the edges and hold on forever, but eventually the dream overtook him. He was plunged back into the halls of Dr. Korsac’s stupid ship. Back into the magenta haze. Back to aimlessly following two veins of quintessence down a dimly lit hall. He sees it all again. The look on Lance and the other paladin’s faces, the screams of the prisoners, and he hears the yell of Kitz above all the rest. Kitz whose body was no longer his own. Kitz whose eyes were now fully yellow. Kitz whose head and face were smooth while his body remained furry like the full Galra. Kitz whose flightless wings had been clipped and remained only as stubs. Kitz who had been through so much just for him. “You! You were the reason I was thrown into that cell! That cell where I waited to have my blood and DNA tampered with for the fun of it! It was all you and your stupid mind games! You are the reason why I became a freak!” And then with a voice low and drenched in hatred he spoke, “You’re a murderer, and that’s all you’ll ever be.”

Azalea woke up chilled to the bone, but with sweat dampening his face and hair. He was still plunged in the darkness, but that was the least of his worries. He had to run, run away from the nightmares—no from the memories that chased him in the dead of night. He was taking shallow breathes now as he clutched his heart. He fumbled around for the door once more while ignoring the fear the window overlooking space provided him with. He succeeded at last and ran into the dark hallway that dimly lit up after sensing his presence. The castle was on night cycle to save energy, but that was the last thing on Azalea’s mind. He ran down the hall and almost barreled into the room marked with a solid blue “V.” 

“What am I doing?” Azalea slid to the floor in distress. ‘What am I doing?’ he repeated this time in his head. ‘I can’t barge in on someone showing me kindness. This is probably why Kitz hates me. I’m too clingy, I’m too much work, and I always need protection. Why am I so useless and weak! Calm down and breath, Azalea, I already debated the pros and cons of this stupid decision, and I’m not doing it again,’ he gave a low sigh of frustration. Then he curled his knees up and prepared to sleep. He just couldn’t go back to that room, not ever. But as he was rationalizing his ideas the door slid open, and Azalea lost his balance falling on the break between the cold metal and soft rug with his back. Needless to say it was less than comfortable and made even more so by the fact that he was staring up into blue sleep deprived eyes. 

“It’s too late in the night to be going crazy.”


	6. Of Paladins and Heroes

“It’s too late in the night to be going crazy.”

Lance had woken to strange mutterings outside his door, but he wasn’t scared until he heard something slowly slide off his door to the floor. He had gathered together a makeshift weapon by grabbing a shoe and wholeheartedly intending to whack the intruder upside the head. He had stopped short of his vengeance when he saw Azalea lying on his back staring up at him in confusion. 

“I’m so sorry for waking you Lance. I know you had a long day with saving me and all the other prisoners,” Azalea quickly rambled. “Never mind that, why are you out here anyway?” Lance said with a yawn. Azalea fiddled with the oversized shirt which was apart of the outfit he found in Lance’s room. The previous dirty cloth he had as clothes had been the only possessions he owned apart from his new freedom. ‘And his powers,’ Lance reminded himself. He didn’t want to agree with Keith, but this kid possessed a lot of power and by proxy had the potential to be dangerous. ‘Yeah, the potential,’ Lance looked down at the face twisted in guilt and melancholy, ‘only the potential.’ 

“I couldn’t sleep,” he finally muttered. “Bad dream?” Azalea looked like he had wanted to say something too that, but instead he simply nodded. “Come in, you can stay here,” Lance had responded without thinking. However, Lance hadn’t expected to respond without thinking. Azalea quickly came in before Lance got the idea to retract his offer. Lance had to admit that it was risky bunking with an alien he barely even knew, but this situation was very familiar to him. Lance was the second youngest of 5 kids, so there was a familiarity to sharing a bed after a nightmare. Milo had always been too prideful to ask, instead Lance would just wake up to find an additional lump on his bed. So yes, Lance let Azalea clammer onto his bed. 

Lance also let the lights remain dimmed when Azalea asked, silently reminding himself to get Azalea a lamp of some sort. Lance let himself fall asleep first because he knew Azalea was watching him to make sure it was safe to let his guard down.   
Lance let Azalea use his arm as a secondary pillow. Lance let this interaction happen because it allowed him to remember his family back on Earth. This would be his makeshift treatment for homesickness and Azalea’s treatment for insomnia he told himself. In other words, there were a lot of things Lance let himself do when running on barely 4 hours of sleep that he wouldn’t normally do, but he would explain these things away later in the clarity of morning. 

Azalea dreams again but it’s different this time. He has the vague feeling that this was also taken from reality, but he could only make out a hazy blue apparition. It was all so surreal in comparison to the other harsh realities he had remembered previously. The blue hazy figure seemed to be a woman, and she was saying something. Azalea couldn’t hear her or clearly see her, but he knew she was saying something to him. He ran after her, but she simply drifted backwards out of his reach much like how the moon sets before the sun rises. The moon doesn’t make a show of its disappearance like the sun, it simply departs in silence with the promise to rise again. 

“The bond forged by choice is stronger than the bond forged by blood.” Azalea had woken up with whispered words on his tongue. He didn’t know how they got there, but a part of him hoped that he had finally caught up to the hazy blue woman, and she had deemed him trustworthy enough to share her secrets with him. 

“Oh, you’re awake. Are you writing a poem or something?” Lance mused when he came out of the bathroom, “Sounds angsty.” Azalea blushed, he probably looked crazy just saying random things all the time. First he was panicking at the door, then quoting the blue woman. What’s next, speaking with the furniture? “Sorry, I had another dream,” noticing Lance’s frown he continued, “but this one...it was pleasant-ish,” Azalea finished with a shrug. It was more mind boggling than pleasant, but Azalea didn’t care to bother anyone else with the details. 

Meanwhile, Lance, having just gotten ready for the day, was tempted to go eat breakfast, but he knew he couldn’t just leave Azalea in the ill-fitting clothes meant for a body three sizes bigger than him. “Come on, we’re going to get you some better fitting clothes, then hopefully you’ll be up for meeting the rest of the team.” The last part of the sentence came out as a question, however Azalea interpreted it as his agenda—a command. Life on the ship had made him accustomed and dependent on structure in his life. 

“Okay,” he hopped out of bed and stood awkwardly. With shoes nonexistent he could feel the icy cool metal beneath his feet. He quickly slipped his feet into the shoes Lance had lent him. Lance took in his stance with curiosity, Azalea stood as though he was a soldier, admittedly a small and generally buoyant (in all senses of the term) one, who was awaiting orders. “You can use the bathroom if you want to take a shower or something. I’ll wait for you.” 

Usually Azalea was given a drink of water and a wash basin on days like this with a sanitizing shower at the end of the each movement. It was not at all similar to the sumptuousness, the magnificence, and the sheer lavishness, of an Earthling’s idea of a “shower.” For starters instead of hot steam coming out of the metal fixture above, fat raindrops poured down onto Azalea’s head and he gasped at the subfreezing temperature. Experimentation with the metal knob in front him led to the discovery of the ability to make the water hot or cold. 

Azalea personally enjoyed the water extremely hot to the point of steam billowing out of the small weather chamber called a shower. He liked to think that if the water was hot enough then he would melt away along with the dirt and grime of the quintant. And he would’ve been content to try if Lance hadn’t knocked on the door seemingly remembering that he had let an alien who possessed no knowledge of the sacred art of bathroom etiquette into his own private sanctuary—amidst his shower shelf. 

Azalea was only just now realizing the abundance of creams and products in the shelf directly outside the shower. However he had more pressing matters to tend to one being the fact that he was soaked from head to toe, clothes and all. He cut off the weather chamber and wrung his—no not his, the clothes were never his to begin with—the clothes and his hair as best as he could. He had managed to stop most of the dripping but Lance’s loose woven shoes still squished uncomfortably as he walked out of the magical realm Earthlings call a bathroom. 

“What happened, did the shower head attack you?” Lance remarked with obvious mirth in his tone. Azalea pondered this a moment, the weather chamber had certainly pelted him with torrents of water, but it had been relaxing and not too painful (the hot water had slightly scorched his skin after all). “No, it was delightful actually! But I have a million questions about how it works.”

“Well maybe I’ll answer them later, for now we have to get to breakfast so you can meet the other Paladins. Clothes first though!” Azalea was worried about meeting the rest of Voltron, only yesterday they were fables in a story he shouldn’t have been told. Now they were actual people, now he was meeting actual heroes. ‘They’ve saved countless people, and I’ve only made their job harder. Wouldn’t that make me the villain?’ 

As Lance led him out of the room he wondered for a tick why the blue eyed guy looked about ready to pee his pants from laughter, but quickly realized that anybody would find a kid military marching down the hall while sopping wet funny. Regardless Azalea huffed and drifted lazily upwards, he wasn’t a fan of being laughed at. 

They walked (well one walked) in silence for a few moments, both thinking about the conversations to come. For Lance he was worried about how Azalea would react to them more or less researching him. For Azalea he was anxious for a host of reasons, some aforementioned and some new like whether or not he would be allowed to stay on the ship at all. 

Finally, they reached a room with a bright green V emblazoned in it. “The green paladin?” Lance smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, I figured you two were about the same size.” He knocked on the door and received no answer. “Come on Pidge you can’t seriously still be sleeping!” 

“Uh, Lance?” Lance turned to see Pidge walking towards him from down the hall. She yawned, “Keith and I had an impromptu sleepover after the  
de-brief, what do you need?” Lance frowned slightly, he had completely forgotten about what had happened yesterday. He inwardly groaned, breakfast would be awkward and he’d probably have to apologize. Even though he did have a good point he had been out of line. 

“I was wondering if you would be willing to donate some of your clothes to the needy.” Pidge eyed Azalea, they were about the same height with Pidge being slightly taller. 

She shrugged and said, “I guess you’re number 6 now,” before leading them into her room. 

Azalea did his best to keep a neutral expression as he walked into the junkyard. There was a path from the door to the bed and that was it. The rest was a no man’s land full of junk, personal items, and strange glowing creatures. He wondered if they were friendly. 

“I think these should do. They’ll no doubt be much better than your current ensemble,” she snickered. Azalea huffed and grabbed the clothes gratefully, “Thank you,” he murmured. He had grown dissociated with his own voice since Kitz’s absence and didn’t like its sound. 

“By the way, how old are you?” Pidge inquired. Azalea felt kind of weird to be back in the bathroom with the human’s weather chamber, which he had been instructed to change clothes in. He avoided looking at the other strange fixtures in the bathroom and quickly peeled off Lance’s ruined old clothes and put on this new set. The white fabric of the shirt was soft and warm and the green shorts went down to his knees. He liked the red trim around the pockets and tan jacket he had been given which he tied around his waist as an emergency weapon. How thoughtful of them to give a guest they didn’t know much about something to protect themselves with. 

“Um, I don’t know. Older than 10 deacpheebs, I guess. Is this information important?” Azalea replied stepping out of the bathroom. 

“Well yeah, it kind of is. I’d say you’re about 14 maybe 13.”

“I like fourteen,” Azalea replied, “it sounds whole.” Pidge nodded, weird reasoning, but certainly not the strangest conversation she’s had in space. Just last week Keith was bothering her about possible space cryptids and finding Mothman’s homeland. The results were inconclusive.

“That looks good on you,” Lance said, all cheery like. 

“Of course it looks good, it’s my clothing. Tim Gunn is quaking.” Pidge posed in what she assumed was a very sophisticated and chic way. In truth she simply looked extremely ridiculous. Lance groaned at the archaic pop culture reference, and Azalea smiled because he guessed that a lot of things wouldn’t make sense for the first few days. 

“I’m starving, is everyone up for breakfast yet?” 

“We wouldn’t know. Care to face the unknown with us?” Lance replied.

“Sure, just me and my merry band of mini-me’s!” 

Lance wanted to protest, but Azalea lined up right behind Pidge and together they marched down to the kitchens. It was quite cute. 

They entered without flourish and Lance and Pidge took to their respective seats. Azalea stood to the side awkwardly while Allura and the other Paladins filed in. Coran was working the the food goo machine and Hunk was working his magic behind the breakfast bar. It took a moment for everyone’s brains to catch up to the new information of yesterday.

Allura was the first to break the silence, “I seemed to have forgotten that we have a new crew member here with us. Welcome to the Castle of Lions, Azalea!” Azalea moved toward the seat she gestured toward quickly, eager to get out of the spotlight. He ended up right next to the man with the orange mustache. He seemed friendly enough.

“Hi,” his voice was smaller than he would’ve liked, “thank you for having me aboard your ship...and for you know freeing me,” he trailed off. He didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, but he analyzed each of the ship’s inhabitants. The yellow paladin Hunk was behind the counter, the pretty lady with pointy ears sat all the way across from him, then there was the angry looking boy, then the short Pidgeon, then Lance, then Coran, and then himself. 

Lance made a gesture moving his finger in front of his mouth and smiling wide. Azalea began rubbing at his teeth, he didn’t think there was anything in there since last time he checked. Two seats down, Lance facepalms. 

“I suppose we should introduce ourselves and get acquainted, then we can move on to more pressing matters,” Allura suggested after a pregnant pause. “My name is Princess Allura. I’m an Altean, and I captain this ship alongside Coran,” she nodded to the very orange man beside him.

“Why yes, I’m Coran. It’s a pleasure to meet you Azalea! I’ve heard quite the bit about you from the locals in this galaxy.” Azalea winced, he couldn’t imagine Coran the orange man hearing anything good about him.

“I’m Hunk, the yellow paladin, we’ve already met though!” the yellow paladin smiles widely. Azalea couldn’t help but smile back before his attention was stolen by another introduction.

“I’m Katie, the green paladin, but everyone calls me Pidge. This is Lance, the blue paladin, and the dope who led the prison break.” Lance squawks at being called a “dope,” and side conversations spring up about the previous mission. The dark boy had yet to give his introduction, so Pidge takes it upon herself to do some prompting. “This here is the current leader of Voltron, the red paladin.”

He looked up from the plate of food he had been moving around listlessly. “Keith,” he gives a brusque nod. Azalea nods back just as solemn which for some reason takes the dark boy by surprise. 

“Oh come on! I even set up for you and everything and that was the best you could do. What happened to being diplomatic?” Pidge goaded half-jokingly. 

“Well maybe I’d be in a more cheery mood if I didn’t have to worry about unknowns wandering around the ship,” Keith jibes back. Azalea politely tunes out of the conversation at this point. He had a feeling that if he kept listening he might not like what he heard. Instead, he focused on the slightly trembling green glob in front of him.

Surely this wasn’t what Earthlings consume on a daily basis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your guess is as good as mine on where this story is going.


End file.
